The Deep End
by Sean Badeer, Search Associate

My oldest is learning how to swim. She’s 7 years old and her goal right now is to pass a swim test so that she can go into the deep end. The deep end is a big deal. It means you can use the diving board, you can hide better in marco polo, and most importantly you can have access to the entire pool. But before you can get there, you have to prove that you won’t drown.

I think a lot of pastors were thrown in the deep end of the pool during their early years in full-time ministry. I get it, ministry is hard when you get started. You have to learn how to swim while getting some water up your nose. I think that kind of development has surely produced some grit in this generation of church leaders, but I think it’s also produced a false assumption that young leaders should be taught the same way.

If you know the pain of being developed through “natural selection”, then you understand why so many people burn out in their first 3 years in ministry.

If we can reverse this trend of young leaders entering a sink-or-swim model of ministry survival, it would change the church. Leaders now can make a difference in this by choosing to put in the difficult work of engaging, developing, entrusting, supporting, and caring for young leaders in their critical early years of ministry. 

I think it’s normal for parents to want their kids to have a better life than they did. We work for a better life for our kids. Shouldn’t we work for a better path for the church leaders who will lead our kids?